Hilton Worldwide ‘wants to be the best, not the biggest’

While the global hospitality sector witnesses consolidation – with Marriott and Starwood announcing a merger as well as Accor Hotels acquiring FRHI Hotels & Resorts – American hospitality company Hilton Worldwide is not changing its strategy and will stick to organic growth.

“We don’t want to be the biggest, but the best. Our strategy at the moment is organic growth and not acquisition…When you buy something you can’t choose, but when you build something from scratch, you can build a strong brand identity,” William Costley, Vice-President of Operations (Southeast Asia & India), Hilton Worldwide, told BusinessLine .

The hotel company currently has 15 operational hotels and 20 in the pipeline in India. It had an initial target of 50 hotels in India by 2016, but the company has not been able to achieve that milestone.

“We will launch three hotels in India next year – Hilton Garden Inn in Lucknow, Hilton hotel in Goa, and Conrad in Bengaluru. The Bengaluru property is the second Conrad brand opening after Pune,” Costley said.

It also has plans to open four hotels in Malaysia in the next 12 months. It will open a Waldorf Astoria in Bangkok next year. The company will also look at openings in Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. Besides these, it has many properties in the pipeline in Sri Lanka.

“In India and South-East Asia combined, the hotel company is looking at over 10 openings over the next 12 months,” he added.

On whether the company is looking to introduce any new brand in India, Costley said: “We think Waldorf Astoria would be a great brand here. Within India, there is a high net worth population…there is a great demand for luxury. The Waldorf brand in the right city will do extremely well.”

The company, however, is eyeing more critical mass on the existing brands that are currently present in India before introducing new brands.

On growth strategy for the future, he said, “Some hotel operators might have a strategy of volume and quantity but we prefer to go for the right brand in the right place with the right business partner. We may be deemed not as fast as other brands but we are very specific as we want long term sustainable businesses.”

Interestingly, the hotel group has piloted a 5-day work week concept across hotels in India. At present, there are 2,324 team members at the 13 managed hotels in the India portfolio.

“People think of our industry as long hours and low pay. We feel that work life balance is fundamental. When you work 6 days cleaning 20 rooms a day the only thing you do at the end of the day is sleep,” he added. In many other countries, the company already has a 5-day week. If the pilot is successful, the company will take a call by the end of this year on introducing it as a policy.

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